This may be true at the time or it may be true sequentially, so that on the one hand we see him trying to appear quite sane and according to some testimony, at times he has not done this but in fact, not according to my own testimony, but the statements that I have heard from others, he has tried to appear a little bit more delusional than the person thought that he was.
Now, I felt that this answer that we saw the second time around was consistent with the same attitude that he had when he came, when he was stating very definitely that he was not of unsound mind. In other words, it may have given him a little more time to cover.
Mr. Specter. Aside from the questions to which you have referred on the danger to counsel and family, did the delusional state which you have characterized as his condition of today, have any effect in your opinion on the polygraphic examination?
Dr. Beavers. I can’t answer the question like it’s put, but I can answer it this way, if I may, because I’m just not an expert on that box over there. I don’t know that much about polygraph.
Mr. Specter. You are referring to the polygraph machine. Well, consider the question rephrased in a manner that you find it convenient to respond to?
Dr. Beavers. All right. I felt that so far as my ability to evaluate this man in responding to questions, that any delusional state did not interfere with awareness of the past, with the presence of seemingly adequate memory, with the presence of an apparently reasonable appreciation of reality in reference to his whereabouts and his behavior in the critical time that was under discussion.
In short, he seemed to behave like a man with a well-fixed delusional system in which whole areas of his thinking and his behavior is not strongly interfered by the delusion.
Mr. Specter. So that the major portion of the polygraphic examination then, except for those parts which you have already referred to, would not be affected in your opinion by what you have characterized as his delusional state?
Dr. Beavers. In my opinion, the major portion of his appreciation of questions and of his answers would be unaffected by the delusional state.
I just can’t, you see, in all honesty, answer something about what the machine taps, because I think I would sort of be making a fool of myself because I don’t know that much about polygraph.